Pelvic health for men and women is a medical area of increasing importance, at least in part due to an aging population. Examples of common pelvic ailments include incontinence (e.g., urinary or fecal), pelvic tissue prolapse (e.g., female vaginal prolapse), and conditions of the pelvic floor.
Urinary incontinence can further be classified as including different types, such as stress urinary incontinence (SUI), urge urinary incontinence, mixed urinary incontinence, among others. Urinary incontinence can be characterized by the loss or diminution in the ability to maintain the urethral sphincter closed as the bladder fills with urine. Male or female stress urinary incontinence (SUI) generally occurs when the patient is physically stressed.
Other pelvic floor disorders include cystocele, rectocele, enterocele, and prolapse such as anal, uterine and vaginal vault prolapse. Pelvic disorders such as these can result from weakness or damage to normal pelvic support systems.
In its severest forms, vaginal vault prolapse can result in the distension of the vaginal apex outside of the vagina, and is often associated with a rectocele, cystocele or enterocele. An enterocele is a vaginal hernia in which the peritoneal sac containing a portion of the small bowel extends into the rectovaginal space. Vaginal vault prolapse and enterocele represent challenging forms of pelvic disorders for surgeons. One known method of repairing vaginal vault prolapse is by suturing to the supraspinous ligament or attaching the vaginal vault through mesh or fascia to the sacrum. In particular, abdominal sacral colpopexy procedures are considered to be particularly effective treatments, however, such procedures can be relatively invasive and are somewhat complicated. An additional consideration is that many patients suffering from vaginal vault prolapse also require a surgical procedure to correct stress urinary incontinence that is either symptomatic or latent. In some cases, in order to correct one or more of these issues, the procedures that are often used involve lengthy surgical procedure times and/or lengthy recovery periods.
There is therefore desirable to provide a minimally invasive yet highly effective implantable system that can be used to treat incontinence, and/or pelvic organ prolapse and other conditions. It is further desirable that such a system can be delivered via minimally invasive (e.g., laparoscopic or transvaginal) surgical procedures, although improvements in systems and procedures that involve more invasive surgical procedures are also desirable.